TOKYO: Japan, South Korea and China agreed Saturday (Mar 22) that peace on the Korean Peninsula was a shared responsibility, Seoul’s foreign minister said, in a meeting of the three countries’ top diplomats in which they pledged to promote cooperation.
The talks followed a rare trilateral summit in May last year in Seoul where the neighbours – riven by historical and territorial disputes – agreed to deepen ties and restated their goal of a denuclearised Korean Peninsula.
But they come as US trade tariffs loom over the region, and as concerns mount over North Korea’s weapons tests and its deployment of troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“We reaffirmed that maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula is a shared interest and responsibility of the three countries,” South Korea’s Cho Tae-yul said Saturday.
“Additionally, I stressed that illegal military cooperation between Russia and North Korea must be immediately halted,” he said.
Seoul and Tokyo typically take a stronger line against North Korea than China, which remains one of Pyongyang’s most important allies and economic benefactors.
Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said he, Cho, and China’s Wang Yi “had a frank exchange of views on trilateral cooperation and regional international affairs … and confirmed that we will promote future-orientated cooperation”.
